When my wife, Jeanne, and I completed the satirical movie, "Is There Sex After Death?" featuring Buck Henry ("The Graduate," "Get Smart," "Saturday Night Live"), we opened at the Playboy Theater on 57th Street in New York City. This was Sunday October 24, 1971 and there were 600 people inside for a full house to witness this world premiere.
One reason for the sellout at 6 pm was a line around the block at 4 pm. They were all "shills" I had hired to stand in line for an hour, and that sight attracted real patrons willing to pay admission for this satire on sex. Our staff, including associate producer Michael Rothschild, were overjoyed. We spent a year creating this independent feature for only $80,000.There was very little left for advertising.
Also, it was a big gamble. Besides Buck Henry we had Robert Downey, Sr. ("Putney Swope") and Andy Worhol's favorite "honey bun," Holly Woodlawn. Then there were the PR stunts: the Sexmobile, an RV decorated appropriately, touring Manhattan streets, and stenciling sidewalk crossings with IS THERE SEX AFTER DEATH? PLAYBOY THEATER 10/24/71. The latter activity would get you arrested nowadays!
So, Jeanne and I are sitting in the balcony with our attorney Bob Schwartz. The lights dim and the 88 year old projectionist throws a switch on the Hortson Projector (a French invention that enlarged our only 16 mm print to 35 mm on the screen). Unfortunately, the old man in the booth couldn't see too well and threaded the film around the wrong knobs. The film jammed, caught fire and that's what the audience saw on the screen. They hooted and stomped their feet with impatience.
As Jeanne sprang over to the projection booth (she had directed and edited the movie), I ran down the stairs and up the aisle to the stage. Then I spoke to the audience, offering free vasectomy operations to the first 100 men at the conclusion of the film and discussed the sex life of the dinosaur. Also a little known fact that cave men would tie a string at the base of their penis to remember something. They remembered it was very painful.
After ten minutes of my blather Jeanne had cleaned out the film gate and threaded the film properly. The lights dimmed and the movie played to the end for a standing ovation. I had returned to my seat in the balcony and quietly inquired of attorney Schwartz what the penalty was in New York state for murdering a projectionist. He said to forget it.
That night, across the street in our hotel suite, production assistant Margery Horne came running down the hall with the early editions of the New York Times, Daily News and New York Post. We had received rave reviews, along with both radio and television news that evening. Jeanne and I did not sleep a wink. We even forgave the projectionist.
Next day around noon I went down to the theater for the first showing at l pm. There was another line around the block! And they weren't shills. These were paying customers waiting to crowd the theater. Wow. Talk about being high. I could have done a Gene Kelly "Dancing In the Rain."
Later that afternoon I received a phone call from Vincent Canby, the senior movie critic for the NEW YORK TIMES. He had been in the audience when we almost lost control of the premiere, and enjoyed my monologue on stage to keep the audience from leaving. "Just like the Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland movies when they put their shows on in the barn."
Canby interviewed me over the phone and said he would write a feature article that would appear in the Sunday NEW YORK TIMES in about two weeks in the Arts and Leisure section. His article was a full page tribute to "Is There Sex After Death?" and every screening sold out with continual lines around the block.
When Hugh Hefner read this Canby feature aboard his private jet, he had a bowel movement. So I heard from his associate, Benny Dunn. Why? Because Hef had booked Roman Polanski's "Macbeth" into the Playboy Theater within the next month. There was big trouble ahead. That will be discussed in another blog. So stay tuned!
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